PhD Transition Report On-Demand

Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode…

• First, Isaiah talks about why gatekeepers follow a framework of 4 types of interview questions when evaluating job candidates
• Next, Isaiah lists the types of interview questions that are relevant for PhD-level positions
• Finally, Isaiah gives and explores the structure of a typical interview process so you can set the right expectations and increase your chances of interview success

How you answer different types of interview questions will determine whether or not you get hired. Employers ask PhDs 4 key question types in order to gauge their communication skills and their interpersonal skills.

These question types are used as a framework for the interviewer to gauge whether or not you’re a good fit for the position. Studies reported in the Human Resource Management Review found that interviewer judgments based on structured interview questions are more predictive of job performance than those from unstructured interviews. Overall, the studies concluded that adding structure to the interview process enhances the reliability and validity of interviewer evaluations.

As a PhD, there are four different kinds of questions you are likely to face in an industry interview:

• Credibility Questions – e.g. “Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?” “Can you explain your responsibilities in your previous role?”
• Opinion Questions – e.g. “What type of leader do you prefer to work for?” “What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses?”
• Behavioral Questions – e.g. “Can you tell me about a conflict you had with your last supervisor and how you handled it?” “Can you walk me through a time you had to follow a policy you did not agree with?”
• Competency Questions – e.g. “If you were given XYZ resources, how would you use your skills to achieve ABC result?” “Do you have any questions for me?”

Respectively, these question types will focus on your experience and credentials, your opinions and how you see the word, behavioral questions, and competency questions.

Employers will typically start their interviews with the more basic question types, including the Credibility Question and Opinion Question types. They will spend 5 minutes asking Credibility Questions and 5-10 minutes asking Opinion Questions. 

For shorter interviews, interviewers will still spend 10-20% of their time on these question types and for interviews early in the interview funnel, such as initial phone screens, gatekeepers may spend much more time on these questions – up to 50-80% of their time.

Behavioral and Competency Questions are leveraged much more during the later interview stages, including video, panel and site visit interviews. For an hour interview, 20 minutes or more can be spent on Behavioral Questions and another 20 minutes can be spent on Competency Questions.

Knowing this will set your expectations and set you at ease so you can perform your best when answering these question types.

If you’re ready to start your transition into industry, you can apply to book a free Transition Call with our founder Isaiah Hankel, PhD or one of our Transition Specialists. Apply to book a Transition Call here.

The post The 4 Types of Interview Questions All PhDs Are Asked appeared first on Cheeky Scientist.

Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode…

• First, Isaiah discusses why you should always add value first when networking with industry professionals
• Next, Isaiah explains the difference between adding value and manipulating a connection to get what you want
• Finally, Isaiah lists the most common ways to add value to industry employers

My mantra when it comes to networking is to “Add Value First” or AVF. If you want someone to accept your connection request, let alone like you and trust you enough to refer you for a job in industry, you must think about them first and yourself second. This must be done authentically.

Many PhDs over the years have asked me, “But won’t they know that I’m just being nice to get something?” …Yes, if you’re just being nice to get something. You can’t just add value to capture a referral with no intent in developing a professional relationship. Likewise, you can’t just directly tell an employee at a company who is not responsible for hiring that you want a job referral from them. In both cases, you are being manipulative.

Reading someone’s LinkedIn profile. Learning about who they are, what they want, what they’ve achieved and what their interests are. Messaging them in a way that serves them best. This is the opposite of manipulation. This is authenticity. You must reach out to contacts with an authentic desire to grow your industry network in the long term.

There are several ways to add value to your connections.

It also requires you to take action even if your actions may not pay off right away. If you can’t convince yourself that you’re the best person for the job, you’ll never convince anyone else.

If you’re ready to start your transition into industry, you can apply to book a free Transition Call with our founder Isaiah Hankel, PhD or one of our Transition Specialists. Apply to book a Transition Call here.

The post How To Add Value To Others While Networking appeared first on Cheeky Scientist.

Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode…

• First, Isaiah explains what a phone screen is and why it’s important
• Next, Isaiah reveals why you always need to be prepared for a phone screen
• Finally, Isaiah gives you tips to make sure your wow interviewers during this stage of the hiring process

The first round of the interview process is most commonly done over the phone or through a similar audio only channel. As such, this type of interview is commonly referred to as the phone screen.

An employer – typically someone from human resources – has seen your resume or received a referral from your networking contact and now wants to talk to you on the phone to screen you and determine whether or not you should progress to the next step in the interview process.

Many PhDs tend to underestimate the importance of the phone screen because it’s the first round of interviews and not technically focused, but remember, if you got to the phone screen, you are among the top 12-15 out of hundreds if not thousands of applicants. It is also your first opportunity to talk to a company employee who will be involved in the hiring decision, so you have to take it seriously.

You need to be prepared at all times for a phone screen because employers set aside discrete units of time to go through resumes or to go through people who have been referred to them and to make these calls.

They might call 20 different candidates over the course of a few hours. So, you will get very short notice, they may email you a couple of hours before, a day tops.

You can’t wait to have a phone screen confirmation to prepare for this interview. The moment you decide to apply at a company, you need to start preparing for the phone screen.

Start by creating a checklist with all the relevant information you have gathered about the company and the position in front of you. What are the things this company is likely going to bring up? What is this company like? What are their values? You should also have a list of questions that you want to ask at the end of the interview.

Set aside a silent room and clear workspace where you can take your call without interruptions. If possible, use a hardline connection instead of a cell phone. Make sure you turn off call waiting and notifications from other apps on your phone.

Keep your resume in clear view. Very likely the person on the other end of the phone is going to have your resume in front of them and will ask you a few questions based on your resume. These are called credibility questions and test if your answers reflect the information that you put in your resume.

If you’re ready to start your transition into industry, you can apply to book a free Transition Call with our founder Isaiah Hankel, PhD or one of our Transition Specialists. Apply to book a Transition Call here.

The post How To Quickly Prep For A Phone Screen appeared first on Cheeky Scientist.

Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode…

• First, Isaiah discusses the general mindset your should have when setting up an informational interview
• Next, Isaiah examines the right way to carry out the conversation so you engage your interviewee
• Finally, Isaiah reviews the seven types of questions you should ask during an informational interview

During informational interviews, you are the interviewer, not the interviewee. As such, you always want the focus to be on the interviewee. Your goal is to make the other person feel important.

Understand that the more you talk about yourself, the less likely the other party will feel inclined to help you. The less likely you will be to get a referral too. Instead of appearing professional, you will appear self-centered and arrogant.

During the interview, you should also aim to gather as much information as possible about the company the other person represents. This is your chance to deeply understand what it’s like to work at their company and whether or not the company is a good fit for you.

Don’t interrogate the other person. Don’t press them to answer certain questions and don’t be a stickler for time or topics. Firing off a list of questions that only matter to you without engaging your interviewee will create a cold and unfriendly atmosphere.

Your goal is to keep the tone casual and conversational by actively listening and responding to the other person’s stories. Don’t be afraid to go with the flow of the conversation either. If the other person veers off on a tangent – good! Let them veer. It means you’ve hit on a topic that is of particular interest to your interviewee.

Finally, keep the entire interview time to a minimum. Respect the timeframe you set previously but – and this is important – be ready with more questions in case they say, “I have another 15 minutes if you’d like to keep talking.”

When it comes to keeping the conversation going, your aim is to be engaging but relaxing at the same time. This is best done by asking questions that are career focused and in the realm of the other person’s expectations. It’s best to focus on the following seven types of questions rather than memorizing the exact questions to ask:

• Preparation—How did they learn about the position they are currently in and what was the application process like?
• Present job—What are their current responsibilities?
• Career future alternatives—What is the career trajectory for people in this role?
• Lifestyle—What are the pros and cons of their position?
• Job hunting strategies—What advice can they give PhDs wanting to secure this type of position?
• Nature of organization—What is company culture like?
• Expertise and qualification matching—What suggestions can they offer for a PhD looking to be successful in their field?

Pay close attention to what’s been said and ask questions when something is not clear. At the end of the interview, try to gather names of other individuals you can interview next. Then, depending on how the interview progressed, ask for a referral to a position that is open or will be opening at the company.

If you’re ready to start your transition into industry, you can apply to book a free Transition Call with our founder Isaiah Hankel, PhD or one of our Transition Specialists. Apply to book a Transition Call here.

The post What To Ask During An Informational Interview appeared first on Cheeky Scientist.

Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode…

• First, Isaiah discusses the strategies you can use to find companies that you would like to work for and could potentially hire you
• Next, Isaiah reveals how to find potential connections at your target companies, so you can complete your Job Search Sheet
• Finally, Isaiah reviews the approaches you can use to reach out to new connections, increasing your chances of getting a response

When aggregating your list of 100 companies, don’t build your list from scratch. Countless others have already done this work for you. Simple online searches for “XYZ companies in ABC location” or “XYZ companies” will start to give you an understanding of all the companies in your desired field.

You can take these company names and add them to the first column of your Job Search Sheet. Next, search these companies on LinkedIn and once you find their LinkedIn company page, add the URL of the company page to the second column listed above. Be sure to include the number of employees listed in the third column.

[Click on the number of employees of a given company] to see all the employees who are working at the company who are also on LinkedIn. You can use LinkedIn’s advanced search filters to find employees who have “Hiring,” “Recruiter,” “HR,” “Human,” or “Talent” in their job titles. These searches will identify the gatekeepers at the company.

Type the name of these professionals into the fourth column of your Job Search Sheet and then link their names to their LinkedIn profile URLs so you can see their names when scanning your spreadsheet and quickly clickthrough to their LinkedIn profiles when it’s time to send them a message.

Similar to your efforts above, you will want to seek out professionals at the company who are in “Proximal Positions”, or positions that are the same or similar to their position that you would like to get hired into at the company. You are specifically looking for those employees who are in the exact same role that you want or who are in lateral roles; those who you would be working with at the company in a cross-functional capacity.

Fill in the name of these professionals into the seventh column of your Sheet and then link their names to their LinkedIn profile URLs. For columns five, six, eight, and nine simply record the last time you interacted with each contact and the next time you plan to interact with them.

Starting a conversation with the contacts you catalogue is very easy once you are organized. You can check out and show appreciation for their recent activity on LinkedIn, discuss posts in LinkedIn Groups that you both belong to, or find more information about the person in press releases, blogs, and white papers published on their company’s website.

Once you have a list of companies and employees at those companies to contact, you can set a small goal to reach out to 2 people per weekday. That’s 10 per week and over 40 per month. It adds up fast and will result in more informational interviews, job referrals, job interviews, and job offers.

If you’re ready to start your transition into industry, you can apply to book a free Transition Call with our founder Isaiah Hankel, PhD or one of our Transition Specialists. Apply to book a Transition Call here.

The post How To Find Companies Who Will Hire You appeared first on Cheeky Scientist.

Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode…

• First, Isaiah considers certain questions you can ask yourself to pinpoint your professional values
• Next, Isaiah talks about your personal “code of conduct” and how that relates to your professional values
• Finally, Isaiah explains why understanding your values is important for your transition

Reflect back to meaningful moments that stand out to you professionally. What was happening to you? What was going on around you? What values were you honoring at this time?

Now, go in the opposite direction by considering your “suppressed values”; consider a time when you got angry, frustrated, or upset. What was going on around you? What were you feeling? Now flip those feelings around. What values were being suppressed?

Many people don’t realize until far too late in life that they have their own life rules and that these rules collectively are different from everyone else’s rules.

What are your rules? What’s most important in your life? Beyond your basic human needs, what must you have in your life to experience fulfillment? Creative self-expression? A strong level of health and vitality? A sense of adventure? Constant growth? Always learning?

By understanding your values, you will understand your priorities, which in turn will help you understand the lifestyle you are chasing and the company culture most capable of giving you that lifestyle.

The good news is that industry employers spend billions on creating and maintaining a culture that will provide their employees with professional lifestyles.

If you’re ready to start your transition into industry, you can apply to book a free Transition Call with our founder Isaiah Hankel, PhD or one of our Transition Specialists. Apply to book a Transition Call here.

The post What Are Your Professional Values appeared first on Cheeky Scientist.

Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode…

• First, Isaiah explains the relationship between company fit and company culture
• Next, Isaiah defines company culture and lists some elements that make up company culture
• Finally, Isaiah gives you a road map to determine your desired company culture

The best first step for qualifying your job leads is determining company fit and the best first step for determining company fit is considering whether or not a company’s culture is aligned with your professional values and ideal professional lifestyle.

Understand – it’s more important for you to determine whether or not a company is a good match for you than whether or not you are a good fit for the company.

Company culture can be defined as a set of shared values, goals, attitudes and practices that characterize an organization. In other words, the way people feel about the work they do, the values they believe in, where they see the company going and what they’re doing to get it there.

Collectively, these traits represent the personality — or culture — of an organization. Establishing the culture that you’d like to be associated with professionally is important to help establish patterns to your job search.

There are a variety of different elements that make up company culture, some of them include company mission, working environment, leadership style, values, ethics, expectations, and goals. Company culture is also known as organizational culture, corporate culture and workplace culture, to name a few.

The best place to start in terms of understanding what company and culture would be a good fit for you is to consider the following questions: 

• What type of working environment motivates you?
• What type of working environment makes you happy? 
• What professional lifestyle are you looking for? 
• What are your professional values?

Consider whether or not you like big, open-space styled offices? Or, perhaps, how an office looks does not matter to you so long as there are intelligent, motivated and equally driven colleagues to work with?

To figure out what type of environment really motivates you, think about a time when you were extremely productive. What was special about that situation? Were you working alone or with others? Did you have a looming deadline or generous time freedom? Were you dealing with people or with the product? Then, do the same thing, but with a situation in which you were horribly unproductive. In short, try to pinpoint what helps you do your best work (and your worst).

You must carefully consider HOW it feels to work at a company on a day to day basis. This is the surest way to determine whether or not a company is a good fit for you and your goals.

If you’re ready to start your transition into industry, you can apply to book a free Transition Call with our founder Isaiah Hankel, PhD or one of our Transition Specialists. Apply to book a Transition Call here.

The post How To Determine Company Fit appeared first on Cheeky Scientist.

Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode…

• First, Isaiah lists the main mistakes that PhDs make when they start networking for the first time
• Next, Isaiah explains the initial steps you should take when setting up a networking strategy
• Finally, Isaiah teaches you how to set up a Job Search Sheet to keep your networking strategy organized

The number one reason PhDs fail in their efforts to transition into industry is they fail to follow up repeatedly with those they’ve connected with. You cannot build a professional relationship let alone get a referral without following up online to establish rapport and trust.

The second reason that PhDs fail in their networking efforts is they fail to establish clear goals. They have no target. They have no system. Their documentation efforts are nonexistent. Their reach out is haphazard. Most PhDs don’t even know who they should be reaching out to. Who are you reaching out to? Who would you start reaching out to right now if you woke up tomorrow with the goal to send a connection request and message to three industry professionals?

I have done thousands of Transition Calls with PhDs in over a hundred countries and the majority of those I talk to cannot give me the name of a single industry company that they would prefer to work with.

The rest are able to name one or two companies but nothing – repeat nothing – about those companies beyond what the average person on the street knows, i.e. Apple makes computers, SpaceX and Tesla hires for AI, BASF deals in chemicals.

How can you get hired into a company if you don’t have any target companies? How can you connect and network with gatekeepers and other employees at those companies if you haven’t targeted those companies?

Networking starts with creating a list of target companies. It starts with research and research, or discovery, is the first step for you even if you’re not sure which industry sector you want to enter yet, because you can always qualify and refine your research results later.

Consider how many spreadsheets, read outs, protocols, lessons plans or other documents related to your research work do you currently have stored on your computer or in the cloud. Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands?

Now, ask yourself this – how many documents do you have stored related to your job search. One? Two? And your goal is to get hired into a top industry career that less than 2% of the population will ever get hired into? Perhaps it’s time to rethink your efforts. You can organize and document your efforts very simply. All you have to do is create a spreadsheet that I refer to as your “Job Search Sheet.”

Fill out 9 column headers in your spreadsheet with the following: 

• Company Name
• Company LinkedIn URL
• Company Size
• Gate Keeper or Decision Maker Contact (Embed LinkedIn URL)
  • Date Last Contacted
  • Date To Contact Next
• Proximal Position Contact (Embed LinkedIn URL) 
  • Date Last Contacted
  • Date To Contact Next

Now, simply fill in 100 rows in the sheet. Yes, 100 rows. It should only take you about 60 minutes. Can you spend 60 minutes organizing your job search? If you do, my experience shows you will be hired into your dream position in less than 60 days after completing your Sheet.

If you’re ready to start your transition into industry, you can apply to book a free Transition Call with our founder Isaiah Hankel, PhD or one of our Transition Specialists. Apply to book a Transition Call here.

The post Who Do You Want To Work For? appeared first on Cheeky Scientist.

Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode…

• First, Isaiah discusses what you should consider before crafting a unique selling reposition
• Next, Isaiah reveals the topics that you should avoid when talking to employers
• Finally, Isaiah explains how you will differentiate yourself by defining you true unique selling proposition

Before you can pitch yourself to an employer effectively, you have to understand what makes you unique in the job market. Then, you have to position your unique qualities as a proposition that will benefit someone else. In other words, you have to craft a Unique Selling Proposition.

The term Unique Selling Proposition or USP (sometimes referred to as a Value Proposition) comes from the world of advertising, marketing, and branding. A USP is a description of the factor or factors that differentiate a company’s product from its competitors.

As a job candidate, YOU are the product that you are trying to sell to employers. When employers are reviewing your application, they will be asking:
How will this unique candidate solve my problem and help my organization succeed?
What is different and better about this candidate that warrants my time and attention?
Why should I choose to work with this candidate and not the other job applicants?
Your USP should address these questions. In doing so, it will help convince employers that you are uniquely qualified and they should hire you over other candidates.

To arrive at your own USP as a job candidate, you need to consider 3 factors from an employers perspective:
What the company needs.
What you do well.
What other job candidates do well.
Imagine each of these factors as a circle in a Venn Diagram of three overlapping circles.

Consider the three areas of overlap in such a Venn Diagram. First, imagine the overlap of the “What the company needs” circle and the “What other job candidates do well” circle but NOT the “What you do well” circle. Clearly, you want to avoid this area altogether in terms of your resume, LinkedIn profile, or any networking conversations or interviews you have with employers.

Second, consider the overlap of all three circles – “What the company needs” “What you do well” and “What other job candidates do well”. You might think this is a safe place to be, but it’s not.

This is a very risky zone because at best, you’re calling attention to the skills and experience you have that many other candidates have and, at worst, you’re putting another job candidate with the same skills and experience back into the employer’s awareness. Unfortunately, this is the zone that most PhDs play in when trying to transition into industry.

The only way to differentiate yourself from other job candidates and to arrive at your true Unique Selling Proposition is to focus exclusively on the area of overlap between the “What the company needs” and “What you do well” but NOT “What other job candidates do well” circles.

This is where you win intelligently in the job market. This is your area of differentiated strength. This is your USP.

The only question that remains is which skills can be found in this particular overlap. The answer lies in your transferable skills and the unique combinations of your technical skills and transferable skills.

If you’re ready to start your transition into industry, you can apply to book a free Transition Call with our founder Isaiah Hankel, PhD or one of our Transition Specialists. Apply to book a Transition Call here.

The post Employers Want To Know Your Unique Selling Proposition appeared first on Cheeky Scientist.